At least 20 million pounds of cheese rests on wooden boards in Wisconsin, the executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association told the Wisconsin State Journal. Changing the way the cheeses are aged would have an effect on the unique taste of many popular cheeses, the newspaper notes.

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It could also mean the end of American-made Limburger cheese.

“Without the boards, it will be the end of Limburger cheese made in the United States,” Myron Olson, the owner of the Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, which is the only American producer of Limburger cheese, told the Wisconsin State Journal.

He says that the cultures that have been on the wooden boards for generations add the unique flavor and smell to the cheeses. He adds that there's no alternative to wooden boards that would have the same affect.

The reason for the FDA's position on wooden boards came after an upstate New York cheese company was cited for unsanitary conditions and listeria contamination, Syracuse.com reports. But the American Cheese Society and the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research maintain that aging cheese on wooden boards is safe, as long as the boards are cleaned and maintained properly.

Luckily for Wisconsin's cheese industry, the FDA backed away from its previous statement after getting a lot of backlash Tuesday. The FDA said in a statement that it isn't banning wooden boards and it "will engage with the artisanal cheese-making community to determine whether certain types of cheeses can safely be made by aging them on wooden shelving," according to Forbes.

The Badger State produced nearly 230 million pounds of cheese in June - a quarter of the nation's cheese production that month. California, the nation's leading milk producer, is second in cheese production with more than 180 million pounds.